Nitty Gritty of Nutrition Vol. 3 - More Protein!
After finishing up my undergraduate years and passing a test, yours truly got to add the first ingredients to the alphabet soup of acronyms after my name in my signature. That’s right - your boy was now a Certified Athletic Trainer. Jordan Smuts, ATC.
Well, this big dog arrived on the absolutely gorgeous campus of Indiana University as a newly minted Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer ready to sports medicine the crap out of these Division 1 athletes. However, before I was able to apply my talents inside the halls of all those beautiful limestone buildings, the powers that be sent me out to Owen Valley High School in Spencer, Indiana for my first semester to be the Athletic Trainer for the daunted Patriots football team.
While I was forging the beginning of my career taping high school kids’ ankles in a smelly locker room before practice, an assistant coach came in and mentioned that a parent was wanting to talk with me. I walked out of the musty building to face a mom with a look of sheer terror on her face holding a big ‘ol jug of protein powder.
“I found this in my son’s bedroom … he’s on the protein and I don’t know what to do,” she gasped to me.
After my initial reaction of, “oh bless her heart,” It then dawned on me that most people don’t have that sound of an understanding of nutrition, supplements, and anything else of the sort. So, in an attempt to give you some nutritional ammunition to apply in the same way that I gave this loving mother, here goes.
You need to eat more protein. Before trying any other nutritional strategy to get a bit healthier, lose some weight, or put on some muscle - my recommendation is going to be the same. Start by eating more protein.
I get it, some man-bunned dude who wears sweat pants to work is telling you to eat more protein … how original. But, give me another molecule that is fundamentally necessary for every function that happens in your body, that helps build muscle mass when in a caloric surplus while also preserving muscle mass when in a caloric deficit, that also makes you feel more full and satiated, and improves bone health and immune function.
Whether you get it from meat, dairy, beans & legumes, or powders, protein is protein and its form prior to entering your body is not all that important. I don’t really care how you go about getting it in your diet, I just want it there. Could we go well deep into the woods about bioavailability and all kinds of other nerdy stuff? Sure. Do I want to? Not really. Do you want me to? I really doubt it.
So, let’s stick to the basics and outline why consuming more protein is my non-negotiable first step to dietary success and how to go about doing that.
How Much?
Here’s all the math I am going to ask you to do. Take your bodyweight in pounds and multiply that by 0.7. That is what I would like to see you hitting. The upper limit to that range would be 1x your bodyweight in pounds.
So, for me as a 200 pound dude, I aim to get between 140 - 200 grams of protein in a day.
What if I’m trying to lose weight?
Whether you are looking to lose fat, put on some muscle, or just maintain where you are at, the amount of protein you should consume does not change. The other stuff (carbs and fat) should be adjusted based on your goal, but that comes after getting all of your protein in.
I can hope that we all agree that creating a caloric deficit (eating less calories than you expend in a day) is required to lose weight. However, taking those calories away from the protein category is not a very advantageous idea.
When in a caloric deficit, your body will try to shed any mass that is available, namely fat and muscle. Engaging in strength training a couple times a week and getting an adequate amount of protein in your diet will make your body give preferential treatment to targeting fat and preserving as much muscle mass as possible. This is really what you want when we talk about losing weight.
How on earth am I supposed to get that much protein in my diet?
I feel ya. That seems like a lot of protein and when we talk about nutritional strategies, convenience of food is always a factor. Most “convenient” options have the protein numbers as a distant third to fat and carbs. So, what can you do to get more protein in your diet amidst all the craziness of life? Here are some options to explore for all the different meals and situations in a day.
Keep in mind, you pay more for the convenience. Super convenient food options that are inexpensive are usually junk. You can either pay in money for convenience or pay in some extra time and effort to get good quality options. That is your choice to make.
Breakfast (from least convenient to most convenient)
Eggs. Hard boiled for extra convenience or over easy for a perfect start to the morning, each egg has 7 grams of protein in each one.
Greek Yogurt. Find a brand and flavor you like, add some fruit and granola if you feel like it. Most greek yogurt options have around 20 grams of protein in each cup.
Jimmy Dean Egg White Delights. I’m not going to lie to you, these taste great. The fat and carbs are a bit higher than the other options on this list, but 18 grams of protein for a 270 calorie sandwich that is super convenient ain’t too shabby.
Overnight Oats. Make it on your own or go with easy mode and order from Oats Overnight. You pay for the convenience, but it tastes great and one pack with 8 oz. of whatever milk you prefer gives you more than 30 grams of protein per serving.
Snacks (from least convenient to most convenient)
Cottage Cheese. Admittedly, I can’t eat it. It’s a texture thing. But, I sure wish I could stomach it because there aren’t too many better options. 25 grams of protein for a cup of cottage cheese is pretty fantastic.
Canned Tuna/Salmon. Look, I get it. There is nothing glamorous about it and if you work in an office and pop out one of these - you deserve the looks from co-workers. But, with a pouch of this stuff coming in at 17 grams of protein and basically nothing else …
Roasted Edamame Beans. Edamame isn’t just for vegans, and some snack packs available at Costco and Amazon have a serving of these with 14 grams of protein and just 114 total calories.
Protein Shakes. These have come a loooooong way from my college days of pounding synthetic chalky disgusting-ness that barely mixes with water. We love the Fairlife Protein Shakes and have them available at the gym. 30 grams of protein with the added benefit of being lactose free. I don’t know what kind of witchcraft they did, but they taste amazing and don’t give me the bubble guts - that’s a win-win.
Lunch and Dinner
Listen, I’m not going to lie to you here. You already know the answer to this. It’s meat. Chicken, pork, or some seafood options if you are trying to stay lighter in the fat category, but there is nothing wrong with red meat to get massive amounts of protein in your diet.
To make it super easy, in general, each ounce of meat contains about 6 grams of protein. Now, the leaner options don’t have a lot of other stuff in it while the fattier options come with some other calories - but the protein amounts stay about the same.
The lowest hanging fruit here is to just take a bigger portion of meat at dinner and lunch. An extra 2 ounces of chicken on your salad, an extra slice of deli meat on a sandwich, go with the 8 oz. filet instead of the 6 oz. one.
If you were to eat 4 ounces of chicken for lunch and 6 ounces of seafood or beef for dinner you would have taken in 60 grams of protein for the day! I just used an exclamation point, that doesn’t happen that often.
If that sounds like a lot, awesome. I would bet you some good money that if you started to do that for lunch and dinner the amount of hunger and cravings you have throughout the day would be cut dramatically and snacking would almost grind to a halt.
To wrap things up, the first prescription for any nutritional goal is to get 0.7 - 1g of protein per pound of body weight. Your schedule and life will often dictate how you go about doing that, but the options from above are more than enough to get you started on the right path.
I really wouldn’t recommend doing anything else or worrying about anything else until you are consistently making this happen. Cut out the noise, eat some protein, and just see what happens - I bet you will like the result.
